No place to hide

Some time in the early hours of yesterday morning four men burst into the home of a female police office and executed her, her family and a visitor who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The hit was ordered from behind prison walls by a man she had just put away for murder. Everyone was riddled with bullets, except a 5 year old girl who hid. A neighbour who heard her screaming says it chilled him to the marrow.

I’ve heard of a mass hits ordered in Jamaica, but it is unprecedented in this country. It is a horror that we have never even imagined, in spite of all that has gone before. The cops are not taking it lightly. They’ve said that their response will be swift and proportionate. They’re not kidding. Within hours they burst in on a man who lived a few streets away from the cop, dragged him out of his bed, set him against his fridge and shot him in the head. This is only the beginning.

We are going to experience a wave of violence like we never have before. When I first heard the news I was driving to work. I felt physically ill. Pains all over my body. My first thought was to stop the car, call Rawle and tell him we have to get out of this place. But where can we go? There’s no place to hide.

There’s a groundswell of protest that’s building. There have been calls to shut down the country for two days, starting tomorrow, in protest against the Government’s inability to stem the tide. People are stocking up on gas, food and water. There will be mass stayaways from work. There may even be street blockages, hopefully no clashes with the cops.

I appreciate the gesture. I’ve done my share of protesting. But I’ve lost faith in the power of protest. Our government, especially our Prime Minister, is so arrogant and so self-obsessed that they have lost the ability to listen to the will of the people. This protest will change nothing.